Greeley OKs 300-acre annexation, zones it residential

GREELEY — The city of Greeley just got 300 acres bigger.

The Greeley City Council on Tuesday, Dec 3, opted to annex and zone two 150-acre parcels just west of Colorado Highway 257 and bordered by Weld County roads 56 and 54 to the north and south that could eventually bring up to 1,200 residential units.

L&T LLC has plans to develop a mix of housing types on the lots on Greeley’s southwest edge.

“We’re very excited about this area, with what we’re doing, and in Delantero, and what’s happening on (U.S. Highway) 34, there’s a lot of synergy going on,” Roger Haller, a representative of developer Stratus Companies, told the council. “This adds to the whole story.”

That entire area is scheduled to grow immensely in the future with hundreds of acres of commercial development between Delantero and the Roche property, just south of U.S. 34 Bypass and west of Colorado 257, in addition to Martin Lind’s proposed arena, hotel and water park to the north across U.S. 34.

The project faced some initial issues with the Greeley Planning Commission because members didn’t want to give blanket approval to a project that hadn’t been fully planned. The Planning Commission opted to zone the property as “agriculture holding,” until the developer did come up with final plans. But the Greeley City Council disagreed, and zoned it as presented, with residential estate, and low and medium residential.

Ken Puncerelli with LAI Design Group in Englewood had originally submitted a plan to zone it all medium- to low-density residential, but between the planning commission meeting, in which neighbors complained about the density and proximity of such a large housing development to their homes, he returned with a plan that called for about 40 acres of green buffer zone between the development and its closest neighbors, and a promise to write on the plat the presence of a 2,500-foot existing airstrip to the south of the development.

Mel Callen, who owns the airstrip, said he was happy with how the developers pivoted their plans to accommodate his and his neighbors’ concerns. He did, however, warn that to land on his airstrip, he needs to be 1,000 feet above the ground or less for at least a mile.

“I was really pleased with what I saw here tonight,” Callen told the council in Tuesday’s public hearing on the zoning and annexation.

There are no set plans for development on paper, Puncerelli said, but preliminarily, the plan was for 78 acres of estate lots, 106 acres of low-density residential and 116 acres of medium-density residential. He told the council it could end up seeing from 1,000 to 1,200 residential units. The homes all would be in the Milliken Re-5J School District.

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